Intel Core i9 11900K vs i7 12700K

We compared two desktop CPUs: the 3.5 GHz Intel Core i9 11900K with 8-cores against the 3.6 GHz i7 12700K with 12-cores. On this page, you'll find out which processor has better performance in benchmarks, games and other useful information.

Review

General overview and comparison of the processors
Single-Core Performance
Performance in single-threaded apps and benchmarks
Multi-Core Performance
Measure performance when all cores are involved
Power Efficiency
The efficiency score of power consumption
Integrated Graphics
iGPU capabilities for gaming and 3D-intensive tasks
The "iGPU" and "Power Efficiency" have a minor impact on the NanoReview Score for desktop CPU.
NanoReview Final Score
Choose your main usage scenario to recalculate the Final Score and see which CPU suits your needs.
πŸ”Œ Usage Scenario:

Value for money (Beta)

Global average CPU prices are used by default! For better accuracy, enter your current prices and click β€œCalculate".
Currency
VS
13.4
(Bad)
Value Index
75.8
(Good)

Key Differences

What are the key differences between 12700K and 11900K
Advantages of Intel Core i9 11900K
  • 8% higher Turbo Boost frequency (5.3 GHz vs 4.9 GHz)
Advantages of Intel Core i7 12700K
  • Has 9 MB larger L3 cache size, helping fully utilize a high-end GPU in gaming
  • Has 4 more physical cores
  • Around 26.8 GB/s (54%) higher theoretical memory bandwidth
  • More modern manufacturing process – 10 versus 14 nanometers
  • Newer PCI Express version – 5.0
  • Newer - released 7 months later

Test in Benchmarks

Comparing the performance of CPUs across various tasks

Cinebench

Reputable cross-platform benchmark for high-performance processors
Cinebench 2024 (Single)
Cinebench 2024 (Multi)
Cinebench 2026 (Single) - 597
Cinebench 2026 (Multi) - 4728
Cinebench Scores (#110th place)

GeekBench v6

The new version of this benchmark emulates common operations often used in real-world apps
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
14714
File compression 862.2 MB/sec 1230 MB/sec
Clang compilation 89.5 Klines/sec 122.3 Klines/sec
HTML 5 Browser 228.1 pages/sec 382.6 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 331.5 Mpixels/sec 374.5 Mpixels/sec
Text processing 241.7 pages/sec 267.6 pages/sec
Background blur 54.3 images/sec 55.9 images/sec
Photo processing 89.4 images/sec 98.2 images/sec
Ray tracing 20.7 Mpixels/sec 29.6 Mpixels/sec
Sources: GeekBench [1], [2] – 1034 & 731 samples

PassMark

Synthetic test that focuses on raw computational performance for low-level functions
Passmark CPU (Single-Core)
Passmark CPU (Multi-Core)
34256
Integer math 88.9 GOps/sec 114.3 GOps/sec
Floating point math 52.7 GOps/sec 87.9 GOps/sec
Find prime numbers 67M Primes/sec 112M Primes/sec
Random string sorting 37.9M Strings/sec 45.8M Strings/sec
Data encryption 15.8 GBytes/sec 23.4 GBytes/sec
Data compression 328.6 MBytes/sec 445.1 MBytes/sec
Physics 1047 Frames/sec 1773 Frames/sec
Extended instructions 23.3B Matrices/sec 28.8B Matrices/sec
Sources: PassMark [3], [4] – 4708 & 11963 samples

Blender

3D rendering test that measures CPU performance in 3D modeling tasks (uses all cores)
Blender CPU
309.16

Performance Per Watt

Shows the score you get per each watt of PL1 TDP
Cinebench 2024 / Watt 6.6 PPW 9.6 PPW
Geekbench 6 Multi / Watt 89.6 PPW 117.7 PPW
Passmark CPU Mark / Watt 199.2 PPW 274 PPW
Blender / Watt 1.7 PPW 2.47 PPW
These are rough calculations, as most CPUs surpass PL1 TDP wattage even in multicore workloads.

Recent User Tests

The latest benchmark tests that have been submitted by users
Intel Core i9 11900K
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2025-04-20 (Zodiax)Cinebench 202495 / 819
πŸ“˜ 2025-02-26 (poweruser65535)Cinebench 2024102 / 870
πŸ“˜ 2024-10-15 (antoine)Cinebench 202489 / 698
Intel Core i7 12700K
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2026-08-14 (Melvin Tejada)Cinebench 2026597 / 4728
πŸ“˜ 2026-07-08 (Myla)Cinebench 2026555 / 3917
πŸ“˜ 2026-05-04 (sisham)Cinebench 2024100 / 635
πŸ“˜ 2025-08-22 (Ray)Cinebench 2024115 / 1305
πŸ“˜ 2024-12-19 (Zach Jones)Cinebench 2024114 / 1231

Specifications

Full technical specification of Intel Core i9 11900K and i7 12700K

General

Vendor Intel Intel
Released March 16, 2021 October 27, 2021
Type Desktop Desktop
Instruction Set x86-64 x86-64
Codename Rocket Lake Alder Lake
Model number i9-11900K i7-12700K
Integrated GPU UHD Graphics 750 UHD Graphics 770
Rival Equivalent - AMD Ryzen 9 5900X - AMD Ryzen 7 5800X
Successor - Intel Core Ultra 9 285K - Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus
Intel CPU rating (127th and 69th place)

CPU

Performance Cores
P-Cores 8 8
P-Threads 16 16
Base Frequency (P) 3.5 GHz 3.6 GHz
Turbo Boost Frequency (P) 5.3 GHz 4.9 GHz
Efficient Cores
E-Cores - 4
E-Threads - 4
Base Frequency (E) - 2.7 GHz
Turbo Boost Frequency (E) - 3.8 GHz
Total
Total Cores 8 12
Total Threads 16 20
Bus Frequency 100 MHz 100 MHz
Multiplier 35x 36x
Bus Bandwidth 8 GT/s -
L1 Cache 64K (per core) 80K (per core)
L2 Cache 512K (per core) 12MB (shared)
L3 Cache 16MB (shared) 25MB (shared)
Unlocked Multiplier Yes Yes

Package

Fabrication Process 14 nm 10 nm
TDP (PL1) 125 W 125 W
Max. Boost TDP (PL2) - 190 W
Socket LGA-1200 LGA-1700
Peak Temperature 100Β°C 100Β°C
Desktop CPU ranking (95th and 69th place)

iGPU

Integrated Graphics Intel UHD Graphics 750 Intel UHD Graphics 770
GPU Base Clock 300 MHz 300 MHz
GPU Boost Clock 1300 MHz 1500 MHz
Shading Units 256 256
TMUs 64 16
ROPs 32 8
Execution Units 32 32
TGP 15 W 15 W
iGPU FLOPS
0.7 TFLOPS
0.8 TFLOPS

Memory Support

Memory Types - DDR4-3200 - DDR5-4800
- DDR4-3200
Max. Memory Size 128 GB 128 GB
Memory Channels 2 2
Max. Memory Bandwidth 50 GB/s 76.8 GB/s
ECC Support No Yes

Misc

Official Site Intel Core i9 11900K official page Intel Core i7 12700K official page
PCI Express Version 4.0 5.0
PCI Express Lanes 20 20

Cast your vote

Choose between two processors
35 (9.7%)
325 (90.3%)
Total votes: 360

Comments

So which CPU will you choose: Intel Core i7 12700K or i9 11900K?
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Avatar
Matthew.A February 14, 2022 at 04:17 AM
I chose the 12700k because it's on par with the 12900k in gaming because of 8p cores and is good for light creativity and production apps. Also cheaper of course.
+10 Reply
Avatar
Charles G November 9, 2021 at 07:39 PM
I chose the i7 12700K for music production
0 Reply